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4.0 

Babel

By R. F. Kuang
Babel by R. F. Kuang digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller from the author of The Poppy War  

“Absolutely phenomenal. One of the most brilliant, razor-sharp books I've had the pleasure of reading that isn't just an alternative fantastical history, but an interrogative one; one that grabs colonial history and the Industrial Revolution, turns it over, and shakes it out.” -- Shannon Chakraborty, bestselling author of The City of Brass

From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire.

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.

Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence? 

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31898 Reviews

4.0
Loudly Crying Face“this is definitely one of the most well written books I have read in a while , RF kuang knows how to make you invested in the story . the characters were likable and Robin had a lot of character development throughout the book . I love that every change in his character was justified . I really liked all the political views on issues like colinism and racism, to show us the suffering in this time and how the whole thing reflects on how things are run today to be honest I think the book was a bit slow till l reached 200 pages and also it took me a while to really understand how the silver bars work but eventually it was worth it .”
Loudly Crying Face“✨4.75 stars ✨ "That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.” This story was a beautifully tragic masterpiece. I honestly think I can never truly write how I feel about this book well enough but I will try my best. This was written beautifully (as expected by R.F. Kuang). I felt so immersed in the story and felt that everything written was thought out to a T. The characters were so complicated in their own way. All of their impact to the story was truly brilliant. Robin, Ramy, Victoire, and Letty. Their friendship was so passionate but tragic in itself as the book goes on. We truly get to see the dynamics unfold throughout the story and how inherently different they are and how it comes in to collision with the story. It truly is a work of art seeing how hopeful Robin is at the beginning and how it changed at the end. How he was raised as a translator for him to realise how corrupt it all was. The only reason I haven’t rated this 5 stars is for the fact it took me a little while to actually become immersed in the story but once I was I could not stop. It’s filled with so much emotion that truly left myself as the reader feeling so pulled toward wanting so much more for these characters. It truly shows the thin line of how peacefulness can become so truly violent. So beautifully done. Check TWs and CWs Happy reading 🩶”

About R. F. Kuang

Rebecca F. Kuang is the #1 New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy, Babel: An Arcane History, and Yellowface. Her work has won the Nebula, Locus, Crawford, and British Book Awards. A Marshall Scholar, she has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford. She is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale, where she studies diaspora, contemporary Sinophone literature, and Asian American literature.

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